Land-use maps for 1934 and 1988, and a 1941 road map of the Philippines were digitized into a geographic information system. These maps were then analyzed to determine the rates of deforestation and their relationship with factors such as the distance of forests to roads and forest fragmentation (measured by perimeter-to-area ratio (P/A ratio) of forest patches) for...

A small population of Burrowing Owls (Speotyto cunicularia) is found in the San Francisco Bay Area, particularly in Santa Clara County. These owls utilize habitat that is dispersed throughout this heavily urbanized region. In an effort to establish a conservation plan for Burrowing Owls in Santa Clara County, a spatial analysis of owl distribution...

GypsES, a decision-support and expert system for the management of Gypsy Moth addresses five related research problems in a modular, computer-based project. The modules are hazard rating, monitoring, prediction, treatment decision and treatment implementation. One common component is a geographic information system designed to function intelligently. We refer to this...

Geographic information systems and remote sensing techniques are powerful tools in the analysis of long-term changes in vegetation and land use, especially because spatial information from two or more time intervals can be compared more readily than by manual methods. A primary restriction is the paucity of data that has been digitized from earlier periods. The...

A geographic information system (GIS) was used to project eight forest community types from a 1,190-acre (482-ha) intensively sampled area to an unsampled 19,887-acre (8,054-ha) adjacent area with similar environments on the Western Highland Rim of Tennessee. Both physiographic and vegetative parameters were used to distinguish, extrapolate, and map communities.

Plot expansion factors can serve as a crude Geographic Information System for users of Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) data. Each FIA plot has an associated expansion factor that is often interpreted as the number of forested acres that the plot represents. The derivation of expansion factors is discussed and it is shown that the mapped plot design requires a...

A forest cover classification of the Kisatchie National Forest, Catahoula Ranger district, was performed with Landsat Thematic Mapper data. Data base retrievals and map products from this analysis demonstrated use of Landsat for forest management decisions.

Sustainable management of natural resources requires informed decision making and post-decision assessments of the results of those decisions. Increasingly, both activities rely on analyses of spatial data in the forms of maps and digital data layers. Fortunately, a variety of supporting maps and data layers rapidly are becoming available. Unfortunately, however, user-...

This study examines the spatial distribution of outdoor recreation sites and their proximity to census block groups (CBGs), in order to determine potential socio-economic inequities. It is framed within the context of environmental justice. Information from the Southern Appalachian Assessment database was applied to a case study of the Chattahoochee National Forest in...

Studies have used Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to evaluate habitat suitability for wildlife on a landscape scale, yet few have established the accuracy of these models. Based on documented habitat selection patterns of scaled quail (Callipepla squamata pallida), we produced GIS covers for several habitat parameters to create a map of...

Private forest landowners support the stewardship objectives that can be achieved through ecosystems-based management. However, ecosystems-based management is a data intensive approach that focuses upon the broad forest landscape. Intervention by forestry agents or agencies could help neighboring landowners to collaborate with an ecosystems-based approach in pursuit of...

Fragmentation metrics provide a means of quantifying and describing forest fragmentation. The most common method of calculating these metrics is through the use of Geographic Information System software to analyze raster data, such as a satellite or aerial image of the study area; however, the spatial resolution of the imagery has a significant impact on the results....

The Niepolomice Forest is located near the city of Krakow in southern Poland. Since the erection of large iron works in the 1950's, the forest has suffered from heavy pollution with SO2 and industrial dusts containing heavy metals. During the past 10 years, the ecology of the Niepolomice Forest has been intensively studied and the impact of...

Wild land in Scotland has been subject to steady attrition due to various types of development. This paper explores approaches that might be used to describe this attrition in Scotland, in order to promote more informed debate and assist policy development. Current digital map databases showing roads, bulldozed trails, plantation forest and hydropower schemes were...

Stream channels are integral to watershed function and are affected by watershed management decisions. Given an understanding of the relationships among channel and watershed variables, they may serve as indicators of upland condition or used in distributed rainfall-runoff models. This paper presents a quantitative analysis of fluvial morphology as related to watershed...

The ArcView? Geographic Information System (GIS)is probably the GIS that is most widely used by federal and state natural resource management agencies, industries, and non-profit institutions. As such, there is a great deal of expertise and comfort with this package within the FIA user community. The North Central Research Station and Michigan Technological University...

Antarctica is designated by the Antarctic Treaty System as a "natural reserve devoted to peace and science" (http://www.ats.aq/index_e.htm). Multiple, and sometimes conflicting, values are protected. In a place where wilderness protection and certain forms of human activity are both prized, a discussion of the protection of the Antarctic wilderness...

This paper presents an integrated system to support urban natural resource management. With the application of remote sensing (RS) and geographic information systems (GIS), the paper emphasizes the methodology of integrating information technology and a scientific basis to support ecosystem-based management. First, a systematic integration framework is developed and...